This year the Netherlands Museums Association had published a Model Bezoekvoorwaarden in which the rights and duties of visitors have been incorporated. The conditions offer, for instance, the possibility of refusing people admission to the museum, which provides the museum with a means of dealing firmly with vandals. Yet there remains a grey area: in places where the rules are not covered or not explicit. In this case the approach of the attendant is of crucial importance. A number of English and Australian Museums have a Customer Charter which lists what the museum has on offer for the visitor. It is being proposed to complete the Conditions for Visitors -with 'the museum expects you' tenor - by a Customer Charter with 'the museum will provide you with' tenor. For the English version of the Model Bezoekvoorwaarden (Conditions for visitors) see:
www.museumvereniging.nl/algemeen/uitgaven/Museumwijzer/mw299eng.html
(Translation English summary: Lysbeth Croiset van Uchelen-Brouwer. Published in Museumvisie 23 (1999) 4, p. 57)
The owner of a Denver used-books store will plead guilty to accepting stolen books and pay $150,000 to competitors whose shelves were pilfered, she and her lawyer said Wednesday. Ichabod's Books owner Kathleen Gomendi said she feels responsible for what happened but insists she was not aware her store was buying books from thieves. "I trusted people; that's who I am," said Gomendi, whose store is on South Broadway. "But you are responsible for the things that you do. I'm truly sorry for the people who were hurt, especially my employees." Prosecutors have alleged that Gomendi and three of her employees bought thousands of dollars worth of stolen books, usually for one-sixth of their cover price. Some of the books bought by Ichabod's were still shrink-wrapped and others had stickers from the Tattered Cover's Lodo store, police said. Ichabod's employees Jack Jensen, Joseph Kinneavy and David Lachman were charged with theft by receiving. They have a court appearance scheduled for Jan. 24. An undercover detective said he was able to sell several hundred dollars worth of books to the store, even though he talked about "ripping and running" with the new books in order to make a living. The Tattered Cover, which suffered the heaviest theft losses, will get most of the restitution money, said Denver district attorney's office spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough, who confirmed the terms of the plea agreement. David Lane, Gomendi's attorney, said both she and the corporation will plead guilty to one of the charges, which include conspiracy to receive stolen goods. In an unusual move, prosecutors filed the charges Tuesday after a year of plea negotiations with attorneys for the store owner and her employees. Lane described Gomendi as someone who is well-intentioned and does a lot of community work with the homeless. Gomendi and her husband, David, bought the store seven years ago. The couple moved to Denver from Houston, where he had worked in the oil business. Gomendi became a member of the Rocky Mountain Antiquarian Booksellers Association (RMABA) and once served as the organization's treasurer. She and her husband have performed as clowns in hospital pediatric oncology units for kids with cancer. Gomendi said her family and lawyer urged her to fight the charges, but she decided against that. Lane said the defense would have been based on the question of how a store employee can know whether a book has been stolen. Prosecutors, however, pointed out that the store paid $24,984 to one man and continued to buy from him after he was caught stealing books from Ichabod's. Lane said Ichabod's will remain in business and has implemented a strict set of guidelines aimed at preventing the purchase of any more stolen books. "The lesson to be learned here is that businesses should be sensitive to the issue of buying stolen property," Lane said.
Contact John Ensslin at (303) 892-5291 or ensslinj@rockymountainnews.com.
http://insidedenver.com/news/1223book9.shtml